A high-profile case which reflects the way technology can be used to respond to major events was highlighted at the annual Claims Convention.  

Head of liability at Sedgwick Talei Morgan warned that consumer expectations are now outpacing the way the industry traditionally performs.

“When a large scale liability event occurs, the standard response across much of the industry continues to be primarily manual," she said.

"Loss adjusters and insurers collect claims details through spreadsheets, online forms, emails, phone calls. Every claims detail must be reviewed, registered and tracked individually, supporting documents are received and managed manually often across multiple systems and countless email chains. 

"These documents are then uploaded, categorised and reviewed before it can be assessed.

“The issue is not that this doesn’t work – the challenge is, it does not scale in an event impacting hundreds or even thousands of payments. The traditional model can buckle under this type of pressure."

She detailed how Sedgwick had responded to last year’s mass tyre-shredding incident on the M1, one of NSW’s biggest freeways.

A truck spilled huge amounts of metal shard which burst the tyres of more than 300 vehicles, with costs of up to $500,000 and the news dominating the broadcast media.  

As well as quickly setting up a dedicated call centre, the claims management firm, working with QBE and Elders, used its intake tool to deal with the hundreds of claims all coming in at once which could have been overwhelming.

"The volume of potential payments meant an automated tech-enabled solution was critical to avoid relying on traditional email trafficking and handling hundreds, potentially thousands of attachments," Ms Morgan said.

“The system allowed claims to be validated and triaged, with vulnerable customers identified early and referred to the client. It enabled consistent real-time capture of intake data ensuring we had a structured data set that could be used operationally."

She said the firm took 900 calls and received 845 claims through the digital intake tool. The average time from receipt of the digital claim to finalisation was three days. Half of claims were paid within 40 days and all within 90 days. In days past, this process could have taken two to three years, she estimated.

Morgan said 98% of claimants had used the technology and the episode had “dispelled the common myth that consumers won’t engage digitally in a high-stress situation. They will use it if it's intuitive, purposeful and properly designed.

“As an industry we can manage these claim events more efficiently to significantly improve the outcomes for customers by collaborating on a co-ordinated claims handling process, using fit-for-purpose technology."